By the Witness Radio team.
For generations, smallholder farmers across Africa have carefully saved, replanted, and exchanged seeds, nurturing crop varieties that sustain their families and communities. But as governments introduce stricter seed regulations, many are now questioning just how secure these age-old practices truly are.
A new African Union (AU) policy framework on Farmer-Managed Seed Systems aims to shift this landscape by honoring the vital role of farmers who produce, preserve, and share seeds beyond formal commercial channels. Yet concerns are growing that the framework’s promise may fall short if national seed laws continue to restrict the very rights it aims to champion.
Farmers, civil society organizations, and legislators voiced these worries during a post-summit webinar on November 4, 2026, delving into the new continental policy’s impact and its significance for ongoing efforts to harmonize seed laws within the East African Community (EAC).
The evaluation convening was spearheaded by the Center for Food and Adequate Living Rights (CEFROHT), the Swiss Foundation for Development Cooperation (SWISSAID) and the Eastern and Southern Africa Small Scale Farmers’ Forum (ESSAF).
These discussions built on the momentum of the inaugural Africa Seed Summit, held from October 5 to 7 in Ezulwini, Eswatini, under the banner Resilient Seed Systems for a Food Secure Africa. Hosted by the African Union Commission and the Government of Eswatini, the summit united African leaders, agriculture ministers, seed experts, farmer organizations, and private sector voices to chart the future of seed systems across the continent.
Key outcomes included the Ezulwini Declaration on African Seed Systems, the unveiling of the 2025 Seed Sector Performance Index Status Report, and a refreshed 10-year action plan for the Africa Seed and Biotechnology Program.
The summit also set a new continental policy course, recognizing farmer-managed seed systems as a lifeline for smallholder farmers and urging greater investment in community seed banks, farmer networks, agricultural biodiversity, and the safeguarding of plant genetic resources.
Yet for farmers and the organizations that stand with them, true recognition means being able to keep using and sharing the seeds they have carefully preserved through generations.
The National Coordinator of ESSAF Uganda, Mrs. Nancy Mugimba, said farmers remain at the center of food production, calling for discussions about food security to go beyond the quantity of food produced to consider the quality and resilience of the seeds from which it comes.
She argued that indigenous seeds managed by smallholder farmers have an important role in helping communities withstand difficult agricultural conditions.
“All the seeds are not uniform, but when it comes to issues of hunger, you’ll find that it is usually the indigenous seeds that are managed by the small-scale farmers that are resilient to all these conditions,” she said.
Mugimba stressed that farmers’ ability to maintain and access a rich diversity of seeds is crucial as communities face drought, shifting weather patterns, and looming food shortages.
While the AU framework recognizes the value of farmer-managed seed systems, its approach to farmers’ rights has sparked concern among civil society groups that support smallholder farmers.
Mrs. Joan Kembabazi from CEFROHT welcomed the spotlight on farmer-managed seed systems but questioned whether the framework truly offers enough safeguards for farmers to freely save, use, exchange, and sell their seeds.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP) recognizes farmers’ rights to save, use, exchange and sell farm-saved seeds, subject to national law. However, Kembabazi said the AU framework does not adequately address how to protect these rights where national laws impose restrictions.
She cautioned that tying farmers’ rights to national seed laws could undermine the very protections the continental framework is meant to deliver.
“If there are any national seed laws that have already been developed that would not uphold the rights of farmers, then this particular conflict is going to limit how much of the farmers’ rights can be exercised in relation to saving, using and exchanging seed as something we think is a very big weakness with this law,” she said.
Kembabazi also cast doubt on the framework’s legal muscle, pointing out that as a policy instrument, it lacks the force of a binding treaty. Member states are encouraged, but not required, to align their national laws with its recommendations.
She also pointed out gaps in how the framework addresses farmers’ rights to sell seeds. She noted its scant attention to legal conflicts with instruments like the International Union for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV) and national seed marketing laws.
These concerns are especially pressing in East Africa, where efforts to harmonize seed regulations are unfolding alongside calls for stronger recognition of agroecology and farmer-managed seed systems.
